Gordonsville batters called timeout time and again, often two or three times per at-bat.
They were only delaying the inevitable.
For the second year in a row, Grace Academy used Gordonsville as its personal stepping stone to the Spring Fling, posting an 11-2 sectional win in the Tennessee Class A softball qualifying series.
The scouting report Gordonsville coaches had received was to call timeout and try to disrupt Golden Eagles pitcher Layce Walker. The Lady Bulldogs did manage to get a couple of illegal pitches, and their seven hits were more than the junior left-hander had given up in her previous combined postseason outings.
“Their coach told us about the scouting report after the game,” Walker’s dad (and pitcher coach Alan) said shortly after the Golden Eagles’ celebration.
The persistent timeouts did indeed bother her but it also got her adrenaline pumping.
“I got frustrated, but my dad (and pitching coach Alan) talked to me in the dugout and told me what they were doing. I learned to laugh,” she said.
“Their strategy was to slow Layce down and it might actually have worked in our favor because Layce has been a little bit under the weather,” Alan said.
“I think it made her made, but she’s a bulldog,” said Grace coach Tina Walker, Layce’s mother.
It got the point where she actually looked into Grace’s dugout and smiled when each timeout was called.
It didn’t matter, either, that she again sprained an ankle stretching a single into a double. While she gave up the seven hits including a two-run home run to Stephanie Erkell, Walker struck out 14 and struck out the side in the second, fourth and sixth innings. She also singled in the first, stroked a run-producing double in the second and then unloaded a three-run home run in the sixth. Shee finished with four RBIs.
Walker obviously helped her own cause but she had plenty of offensive support. Lexi Dean went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Bethany Cowart 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Kaithlyn Eldridge 2-4 with an RBI.
Erkell and Brittany Thornton had 2-for-4 nights for Gordonsville.
The win was Grace Academy’s 30th in 36 games, allowing them to attain a preseason goal.
When asked if her team would now have a new goal, Tina Walker replied, “Yeah, win four in a row (in Murfreesboro).”